Spending less during COVID?

[HtownRose]

Thank you so much! Yes, doing much better with her mouth. And fully vaccinated now, so we may venture out to visit family in a month or so.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We were pretty much flat, spending $1k less in 2020 than 2019. We spent about 1/3 of normal travel budget, getting some smaller trips in before everything started shutting down mid-March for us and got a regional trip in during the late summer when the case counts were low and they were encouraging travel within the province. Our normal travel, entertainment, and commuting spends ended up being redirected to home stuff. Eating out got redirected to higher food costs and buying groceries for our folks so they didn't have to go out.

 

[Katsmeow]

I suspect our spending much less due to Covid is about to change a bit now that we are fully vaccinated. When Covid hit we had just finished remodeling but still needed to buy some furniture for a room or two and needed to get window coverings. We even had measurements done but then just stopped on everything. I suspect that over the next couple of months we will get that all done. Of course, that is something we always planned to do and have the money set aside to do it.

I think some of our spending will stay lower for quite awhile. We will be doing takeout only for a while but I have a few things that I've put off for a year.

 

[DrRoy]

Spent more. Still travelled, but by car instead of air. Remodeled the house, including an already in the works new outdoor covered deck, which much helped with lockdown times.

 

[rayinpenn]

I knew we spent less in 2020 I was surprised how much so.

Finished our income tax return this morning and was surprised to see how little we spent this year. We had a pretty big medical/dentist spend included in it. It has me rethinking what our basic budget is. The cars sat, we stayed in, and we maybe did pizza/hoagies once every other week. One pricey Thai takeout for the kids; it was delicious, I discovered I like drunken noodles.

No Home Depot, No Lowe’s pretty much nothing. Anyone else discover this as well.

 

[Scubamax]

We've spent a LOT less on travel, about the same on food, and a LOT more on home improvements (which is never-ending)

This pretty much sums it up for us as well!

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

Are you spending less during COVID?

To set this up...we FIREd in 2019, but I do about 200 hours/year of handyman work. We are 59/62. Our annual spending is around $90k.

We sure are spending less, but not by choice! About 35-40% of our budget is discretionary....we normally spend a lot on travel (about 6 trips/year....one of those international), I have expensive car hobbies (muscle cars), I spend a lot in my woodshop (hobby, not to sell), and we went out to eat about 3x/week).

When COVID hit, we stopped all travel and did not eat out other than occasional carry out. The woodworking hobby increased, so I spend more there. But overall we’re spending about $1,400 less per month than before.

I told DW that we will make up for it when we can....we’ll take 10 trips next year or more expensive trips lol.

Yes, we are spending more on groceries and utilities....but still we’ve spent $15k less over the past year. We are very blessed to be in the financial situation we are, and look forward to getting out and around soon. Want to post more in the blow-that-dough thread.

What about you?

Easily 10K lower, but a new deck and misc house projects took care of that LOL

 

[Finance Dave]

Easily 10K lower, but a new deck and misc house projects took care of that LOL

Seems to be a common theme on home improvement lol.